The Guild and 12 university associations present amendments to the Horizon Europe proposal

The Guild has presented amendments to the Commission’s Horizon Europe proposal together with other university associations, representing the voice of millions of students and thousands of researchers across Europe.

The amendments have been endorsed by the following networks: EUA, LERU, EARMA, EASSH, ECIU, Aurora, Coimbra Group, CESAER, UNICA, SEFI, IDEA League and Yerun.

The Guild highlights the following priorities for the upcoming negotiations of the European Parliament and the Council of the EU:

The total budget of Horizon Europe needs to be significantly increased. Furthermore, Horizon Europe must build on proven success and allocate at least 25% of its overall budget to the European Research Council (ERC) and at least 12% to the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA).

Fundamental and collaborative research should be explicitly acknowledged as a strategic priority for Horizon Europe in the Global Challenges and Industrial Leadership pillar.

The budget of the Global Challenges pillar should be redistributed more evenly across the clusters to increase the budget share of the ‘Health’ and ’Inclusive and Secure Societies’ clusters, reflecting the outstanding importance of these fields in addressing the concerns of European citizens.

Besides contributing to the creation of growth and jobs, research and innovation play a crucial role in Europe’s ability to respond to societal challenges and produce effective solutions that improve the well-being of citizens. Horizon Europe should optimise its social impact by promoting the prominent participation of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities (SSH) across the three pillars and the five thematic clusters of the programme.

Horizon Europe cannot live up to the standards of excellence and reflect the reality of societal and scientific development without the continuous and structured dialogue with leading researchers and academic experts from all disciplines. The existence of effective advisory groups has to be guaranteed, and the evaluation of proposals should be carried out exclusively by independent external experts.

The European Innovation Council (EIC) should invest in all types of innovation across all sectors and disciplines.